4th Jan 2010
Magnetic devices retrofitted on vehicle fuel lines are far more effective in cutting fuel consumption than sceptics might have you believe.
That’s the message from Andy Elkin, fleet manager with Carmarthenshire County Council.
He trialled Magno-Flo units over a six month period on a wide range of vehicles, including Berlingo and Sprinter vans, Transit tippers, Vauxhall Astras and Vivaro panel vans, Dennis Eagle and Volvo refuse collection trucks and Mercedes Axor wagons.
Fuel savings, he says, were typically 8—10%, although one of his Volvo engined refuse trucks achieved a staggering 12% improvement. On the other hand, his Astras and Berlingos showed a negligible fuel performance uptick.
“The trial was zero cost to us, because the units were provided free by the manufacturer. We monitored fuel consumption monthly, and ran the trials without our drivers’ knowledge – comparing against the same period for the previous year,” explains Elkin.
“We have now bought £16,500 worth of equipment and I estimate payback within nine months on the majority of our vehicles but, for example, three months on our Dennis Eagles. It didn’t work for all the vehicles, so where there was no improvement we won’t be installing the equipment,” he adds.
Elkin says the units were positioned on the fuel lines anywhere between the vehicle fuel tank and the pump filter. “Where you locate it depends on the vehicle. We worked with Magno-floto see where it worked best.
Elkin is now rolling out the trial to include other types of vehicles and plant machinery operated by the council.
See next month for more details.
Saturday, 06 February 2010 17:35:01
I would like to see the full results of this test, as there has never been any trial that consistently gave any consistent or repeatable savings. A number of fleets have trialled various fuel saving devices over the years without an achievable return on investment..
many trials were also carried out at BTAC again with no consistent and repeatable savings.
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